Press

Garage takes BT’s brand of hard-nosed journalism to startups
The Business Times
2019 May 07

THE Business Times is revving up its startup coverage with Garage, a portal that provides news and analysis about the region’s booming startup ecosystem.

Located at bt.sg/garage, the new vertical brings BT’s speciality – the investors’ perspective – to coverage of startup news and issues aimed at existing readers and new ones interested in the startup space.

The product has already caught the attention of big names in the startup ecosystem.

James Tan, managing partner at Quest Ventures, said: “Garage by The Business Times looks set to be the authoritative voice on the startups scene in Singapore. Whether venture or impact investments, large exits or angel cheques, its in-depth coverage of the stories that matter is why we look forward to the column every day.” More

创投领域少数民族 求索创投吴谊平
联合早报
2019 May 05

置身男性居主导的创投领域，求索创投37岁女性合伙人吴谊平可说是这个行业的「少数民族」。

《福布斯》今年公布的全球最佳100创投人榜单里，女性仅12名，去年更只有区区九人。吴谊平认为，女性能为创投领域提供不同的视野和看法，希望更多女性加入这个行业；她指出，职场氛围显示，现在正是女性加入创投领域的大好时机。

她说：“创投领域应该有更多女性，她们可提供不同的视野和看法。” 她指出，女性对关乎女性的课题和领域有更深刻的理解，她们也往往能设身处地去思考并聆听。

求索创投所投资的公司中，37%拥有至少一名女性创办人，例如Style Theory、42Race、Telepod、 Watchoverme和Shopback等。More

Glife raises seed capital to take farm food direct to forks
The Business Times
2019 Apr 22

Glife received pre-seed funding from Quest Ventures, and rolled out a soft-launch of its platform’s farm-to-table operations in Singapore in May 2018. Since its inception, the portal has provided more than 150 restaurants with direct access to quality fresh produce from farmers within their ecosystem. “We actually have a better cost structure and are being more price competitive to get customers in,” Mr Chou said. More

求索创投首次对外募资，其创始人、窝窝团联创陈中认为东南亚电商和农业科技仍大有可为
36Kr
2019 Apr 01

自2010年以来，风险投资公司求索创投 Quest Ventures 一直致力于投资东南亚地区的电子商务和互联网经济初创企业，其参投的知名企业包括“东南亚闲鱼”二手拍卖网站 Carousell、新加坡二手车交易平台 Carro 和东南亚电商返现平台 ShopBack。

过去很长一段时间里，Quest 都不需要对外募资。Quest 是幸运的，因为它有一个教父——James Tan。在中国呆了近十年后，James Tan 出售了他在电子商务公司窝窝团的股份，收拾行李，回到了祖国新加坡。

Tan 的得意之作便是 Quest Ventures，如今他在该公司担任管理合伙人。一直以来，出售窝窝团股份的收益让 Quest 得以轻松运营。但 Quest 还有更多野心，需要更多的资本。Quest 拟设立一只5000万至1亿美元的基金，用于投资东南亚初期阶段的数字经济初创企业。 More

Islamic digital economy a “most surprisingly popular tech vertical”
KrASIA
2019 Mar 26

“One of the sectors that we have invested in and are tracking closely is the broad Islamic digital economy, which encompasses everything that we have in the ‘general’ digital economy but with an adherence to Islamic principles.”

(Quest Ventures’ James) Tan is specifically interested in how these rules apply to lending.

According to a 2017 report from IMF, there is a funding gap of USD 80 billion for small and medium enterprises in Indonesia. While SMEs make up more than 95% of the number of businesses in Indonesia, less than 15% of them have access to bank financing. This lack of access is often the result of a lack of fixed asset as collateral, a lack of operating history, poor operational efficiency, or poor financial reporting.

With the entry of multiple international players in P2P financing and rampant unethical business practices, Tan says, “A deeper adherence to Islamic principles will be helpful in weeding out unsavoury players in the world’s largest moderate Islamic market.” More

Bike-sharing firms on “sad retreat”
Singapore Business Review
2019 Mar 18

… Financial difficulties in its home market may have prompted Mobike to rethink its global ambitions, said Yunming Wang, venture partner at Quest Ventures. An earlier report from TechCrunch revealed that Mobike reportedly laid off its entire Asia-Pacific operations team as part of its efforts to trim down its regional presence and focus on its Chinese operations.

“The Singapore bike-sharing scene is now dead. Where there was untidiness on the streets, there was however last-mile convenience. With the industry all but dead, the streets are now tidy but the convenience is gone,” said Wang, referring to the indiscriminate parking of shared bikes in Singapore which could be traced as the source of Ofo’s woes.

“For an industry that was widely hailed as one of modern China’s four great inventions – the others being high-speed rail, Alipay and e-commerce – this is a sad retreat and has important lessons for startups to learn,” he added. More

Food ripe for disruption in Asia
Deal Street Asia
2019 Mar 12

According to James Tan, managing partner of Quest Ventures, there are gaping holes in the food supply chain ripe for venture investments to solve and make more efficient.

Tan said: “After planting, where do they go? Do farmers plant at volume or not? We need to get the supply chain ready first…” More

5 Singapore VCs Who Are Supporting The AI Startup Community
Analytics India Magazine
2019 Mar 12

Quest Ventures made the short list of VCs that are investing into artificial intelligence.

“Based in Singapore and China, Quest Ventures is a leading venture fund for companies in the tech sector, especially those promising high scalability. It has been focussing on an overreaching digital commerce strategy across industries such as e-commerce, entertainment, logistics and more, using artificial intelligence. It has invested in startups such as Nurture.ai, which is a platform dedicated to making AI research more efficient, reproducible and accessible.” More

A drink with… Goh Yiping, Partner at Quest Ventures
Singapore Tatler
2019 Mar 11

Drawing on her entrepreneurial experience, the venture capitalist is helping to groom the next generation of start-up leaders.

Goh Yiping’s mind is constantly running. Her thoughts are mostly about new business opportunities or ways to help build start-ups. “I cannot sit still, even when I’m on holiday,” says the 37-year-old entrepreneur, who has founded several technology-driven companies.

While still running All Deals Asia and taking on the development of Lippo’s e-commerce business, Matahari Mall, the Generation T 2018 honouree decided to become a venture capitalist. “I enjoyed being a founder and being at the front line of running a business, but I started to wonder how I can make a greater impact and harness my connections and experience to help others build their businesses.” More

Still plenty of room to play in SEA’s digital economy, says Quest Ventures’ Tan
DealStreetAsia
2019 Mar 10

Since 2010, Singapore-based venture capital firm Quest Ventures has been discreetly investing in e-commerce and internet economy startups in the region. Its portfolio today includes prominent names such as Carousell, Carro and ShopBack.

Through all this time, it has not needed to fundraise – until now.

Quest is lucky. It has a godfather – James Tan.

But Quest is nurturing big ambitions, requiring bigger capital.

The VC is now targeting an open fund of $50-100 million to invest in early-stage digital economy startups in Southeast Asia. It plans to invest in about 100 companies across the fund’s 10-year tenure, with ticket sizes between $500,000 and $1 million, and scope for potential follow-on investments. More

Step into your power: An open letter to the next female startup founder
The Business Times
2019 Mar 08

In an op-ed for The Business Times to celebrate International Women’s Day, 42Race’s cofounder and CEO Zhou Mi gave praise to Quest Ventures.

“I am first and foremost in the role of a co-founder, the leader of my team. My responsibility is to provide a better future for those that follow me. There were many times where I doubted my capability and direction. Those doubts however, stemmed from my limited knowledge and understanding of business strategies and industry. I am blessed to have amazing mentors (a shout out to James Tan from Quest Ventures) and fellow co-founders from Oddle, Carousell and Xfers where I can share my problems with and whom I can learn from. I do not feel limited to reach out to them because of my gender.” More

How Goh Yiping is Levelling the Playing Field in Venture Capital
High Net Worth
2019 Mar 08

Goh Yiping doesn’t play by the rules.

Starting in 2004, the serial entrepreneur founded her first company, World Indigo, at the age of 22 while juggling academic responsibilities. In spite of her inexperience as a business neophyte, her inaugural enterprise raised a laudable $350,000 in seed funding, and won the National [email protected] Business Plan Competition.

Bitten by the start-up bug, she went on to establish AllDealsAsia at 28, which grew to become the top deal aggregator in the region. Displaying acute foresight and a forward-thinking spirit, she even introduced online customer service to the platform at a time when websites were still slow to adopt live chats. Fast forward four years, AllDealsAsia was acquired by Lippo Group, which kick-started her next venture, Matahari Mall – an e-commerce site that would rise to the top as a multi-million dollar business.

In 2016, the real estate graduate turned e-commerce doyenne switched gears and joined Quest Ventures as a venture partner. More

Quest Ventures raising two new funds totalling up to US$120m
The Business Times
2019 Mar 04

The Business Times of Singapore took a deeper look at the latest funds from Quest Ventures.

“Venture capital firm Quest Ventures is raising two funds – an open fund of US$50 million to US$100 million, and an impact fund of up to US$20 million – The Business Times has learnt.

Quest, a seed stage and Series A investor, is known for cutting first cheques for Carousell, 99.co and Shopback. This is the first time that the firm is raising capital from limited partners (LPs).

Mr Tan believes the time is right to launch the two funds because the right people are in place. Quest recently appointed serial entrepreneur Goh Yiping and industry veteran Jeffrey Seah as partners. They were previously venture partners since 2016 and 2017, respectively.

The primary markets that Quest is targeting are Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam, while the secondary markets are Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and the Philippines. More

Quest Ventures launches $50m early-stage SEA fund, promotes two to partners
DealStreetAsia, e27, Tech In Asia, KrAsia, Yahoo News, and more
2019 Mar 01

Quest Ventures is launching a $50-million fund targeting early-stage, digital commerce startups in Southeast Asia. The Singapore-based venture capital has also named two new partners – Goh Yiping and Jeffrey Seah – who have been venture partners with the firm since 2016 and 2017 respectively.

Goh is the former CEO and co-founder of All Deals Asia. She was also the chief product officer and co-founder of MatahariMall.com, an Indonesian fashion e-commerce site backed by Lippo Group. The firm commented that Goh’s appointment is fresh air in the industry where “female representation at investment funds is still sorely lacking”.

Seah was Southeast Asia CEO at Starcom Mediavest Group (SMG), and former CEO of Mindshare where he oversaw the Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesian markets. “Quest Ventures has an impressive track record in identifying startups that have scaled extensively in Southeast Asia across numerous verticals. I look forward to bring my experience in accelerating ideas with corporations to Quest Ventures,” said Seah. More

Quest Ventures shares playbook on implementing ESG
Money FM 89.3
2019 Feb 20

Money FM 89.3 interviews Quest Ventures to find out what our Environmental, Social and Governance focus means.

Senior analyst and Head of ESG Khor Qianyi touched on our approach which includes discovery, environment scanning, and implementation. With the broad range of focus areas defined by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, Quest Ventures’ work focuses on the base of the pyramid and the emerging middle class in Southeast Asia, among others. More

Age is no issue when raising funding from Quest Ventures
The New Paper
2019 Feb 09

Haikini’s founder and CEO Beckie Liu was interviewed by The New Paper on her journey to create functional, stylish and affordable surf swimwear.

“However, being young meant that one big hurdle was funding.

While she was able to persuade her mother to fund some prototypes in the early days of the brand, she was also able to secure venture capital in November last year.

“Quest Ventures invests in early stage start-ups – I was approached by a friend who was working there. They encouraged me to pitch for funding.”

The process helped her overcome two hurdles. Funding and her lack of self-confidence. While Miss Liu was nervous about presenting the business to an investor, she found the strength to overcome it.” More

Quest Ventures help social organisations create impact
The Business Times
2019 Feb 07

Quest Ventures senior analyst Khor Qianyi said: “There can be a very nice blend of impact investing when it comes to these few things. It can solve not only the capital problem but fund companies and continuously do good work and ensure that they are financially sustainable.”

ESG scores are tools for sustainable investing and the approach looks at the environmental, social or governance risks that can potentially limit the investment returns when it comes to committing the initial outlay. With the ESG approach, Quest Ventures aims to support passionate founders in solving social issues, not only with capital but with their network and resources – such as mentorships and partnerships – which can help them scale their impact. More

Architecture in religion – towards eco-friendly, socio-economic mosques
IslamiCity.org
2019 Jan 16

Rushdi Siddiqui, mentor at Quest Ventures, writes on the eco-friendly socio-economic Mosque at IslamiCity.org – The Global Muslim ECommunity.

“The Mosque is the epicenter of the community and an important learning place. To amplify the environmental stewardship responsibilities, there is no better place to teach than by way of an example of an eco-friendly Mosque.

Thus, the time is now to build, convert, and/or upgrade within the spirit of Quba Mosque. A solid foundation built on not just environmental impact statement, but, more importantly, on operating environmental considerations filled with learnings, activities, discipline, self-sufficiencies, and connected to youth by way of technology and resulting socio-economic activities.” More

Eatsy raises new funding
DealStreetAsia
2019 Jan 15

Eatsy, a food ordering and payment mobile app, on Tuesday announced that it has raised $550,000 in a seed funding round led by early-stage venture capital firm East Ventures.

The startup has raised more than $1 million in funding from investors including East Ventures, Quest Ventures, Wee Teng Wen (Lo&Behold) and the three co-founders of RedMart.

“With the access to new capital, we look forward to further development in technology, product expansion, and acquisition of new talents in 2019. Furthermore, Eatsy plans to cement its position as a leader in the mobile order-ahead and pick-up space in Singapore” said Eatsy co-founder and CEO Shaun Heng. More